A Pediatrician’s View of Bodytalk

As a practicing pediatrician and holistic physician, I have had the privilege of evaluating and treating many children and families over the years. BodyTalk continues to be one of the primary treatment modalities I use in my practice because it is effective, gentle, without dangerous side-effects, and because IT WORKS!

I have come to the realization that medicine is about communication and the ability (or inability) of the body’s energy system to transfer information.

I have found this to be very clearly evident in the field of pediatrics. In the BodyTalk system we have the concept of the family matrix. This has importance from an energetic and consciousness based perspective for all members of the family, including parents, children, siblings, pets, etc.
BodyTalk provides a method or a means to elucidate the primary factors contributing to a child’s current state of function on the mental, emotional, physical and spiritual levels of being.

I use the family matrix concept during many BodyTalk sessions in my practice to enable the information transfer required for the child’s energy system to rebalance as well as for the coordination, functioning, and understanding of all of the family members affected by or contributing to the imbalances.

The beauty of the BodyTalk system is that it continues to evolve and grow, providing multiples avenues of communication for a child’s system to learn and respond. What I mean is this: it does not matter if you are a beginner, an advanced practitioner, a specialist with a medical degree, or an interested parent – if you use BodyTalk for your child, the information will find its way into your child’s consciousness and start to make positive changes.

I have witnessed many examples of these changes in the course of my career in pediatrics, and I must say that it is very gratifying to have a system which works so well and fast in kids. I believe we have a tremendous opportunity to influence, improve and accelerate the learning and rebalancing required for the next generation to grow and develop in amazing and meaningful ways.

The process of BodyTalk, that is, the asking of innate and the intention to get in synchrony with the underlying system of intelligence at work in the child’s system, is important to demonstrate to the child themselves. In other words, the practitioner’s focused attention, the gentle tapping on the head and chest, the holding of quiet space and the willingness to spend the time required for the child’s system to respond; these are all opportunities for the child to really get that the practitioner or parent is offering help in a most unique and powerful way. This kind of interaction is hard to come by in our modern medical environment and I believe it is crucial for children and young people to have this kind of experience before they are thrown into the stress-filled world of adulthood.

If you are a BodyTalk practitioner reading this, I invite you to look for a course I will soon be offering called Pediatrics for BodyTalkers. It will help you better understand the unique needs of children and parents and the practical applications of the BodyTalk system so that you will feel more comfortable and confident using BodyTalk for kids of all age groups, including infants.

If you are a parent, I encourage you to locate a certified BodyTalk practitioner near you and receive treatments for yourself or your child so you can experience the benefits directly. Additionally I highly recommend taking the BodyTalk Access class so that you can use important balancing protocols to help your child (and other family members) on a regular and as-needed basis.

To gain immediate access to more practical tips and useful information about BodyTalk for kids and parents, go to: http://bodytalk.principlesforparents.com/community

Thanks for coming back to visit my blog. If you like the content I have here, let all your friends know and make sure you send me your questions and comments.

Online Course for Parents

I am pleased to introduce my new online course for parents called Energy Medicine 101 for Parents. This 12 part course includes the 7 secret principles I discuss on my audio CD of the same name and the 10 energy medicine principles I first revealed as part of my book called Energy Medicine Principles for Parents.

The first 3 lessons are available for you to preview right now in the members area of my site. I want this experience to be interactive as well as educational for you, so go ahead and check it out and let me know what you think by leaving your comments and feedback after each lesson.

I know that as a parent you are pressed for time, have multiple things to contend with on a daily basis, and yet you have questions that you’d like answered for the benefit of your child and family. This course attempts to answer some of those questions you may have and I have based the content on themes and topics that come up in my conversations I have with parents in my office practice.

The course is set up to allow you to go through the material at your own pace, and the majority of the lessons are given in both audio and text formats for you to choose from. A list of the topics covered in each lesson are given on this page with more details on the course.

I hope that you will find the information I have to give you to be useful, understandable and relevant to your child’s situation. Are you ready to give it a try? Preview the First Lesson Now

Parenting Tips: You Set The Rules

The next parenting tip I have for you is that you set the rules. You as the parent should have free reign to “set the rules” of your household and family. After all, this is in keeping with how the real world works. We all have to follow
certain rules to maintain order in our society. If the following of rules can be practiced by your whole family, it will make your lives much easier and less confrontational.

Key Points about RULES for your family:

• Follow the rules rather than enforcing your will.
• This is a key component that teaches respect for following rules.
• Example of the “training run” to the store.
• Direct experience of the consequences, not talking about them.
• You get to side-step the confrontation.

Let’s look at an example. If you are having difficulty with the kids
acting out in the car while you’re driving, make a new rule which says if
the kids are misbehaving in the car, you will turn the car around and go
back home. It is important to schedule “training runs” when you really
don’t have to go shopping or run errands but specifically designate a
time to drive to a location just like you normally would. When the kids
act up, immediately turn the car around and head home, with the
statement that the rule was broken, and therefore the result is you all
go home.

This as an event will be imprinted in your child’s memory banks, and even if you have to repeat this exercise many times, it will eventually lead to a resetting of the behaviors your kids will exhibit in the car. By direct experience, they will associate misbehaving in the car with having to go back home. You really don’t need to say very much if this action takes place on a consistent basis. In this way, you are working with the learning process of your child and giving them plenty of practice.

One last point to make on this is that now the confrontation stance is between your child and “the rules”, not you personally as the parent. If you can maintain neutrality in the interaction, you will see a dramatic decrease in the friction between you and your child.
In fact, you can take the same side as your child and empathize with the fact that they must follow the rules and perhaps things will turn out better next time. Now both of you will be working together the next time you’re in the car, to do what you can to prevent the rule from being invoked in the first place. Try this out and see how much it can help you and your family.

BodyTalk and Your Child

This video is an introduction to the BodyTalk system and your child. I have been using this technique with my own patients for many years now. I want to give you some background information as well as some examples in this video that I think all parents need to know.

My goal in making this video is to describe how the evaluation and treatment of your child can be enhanced by using energy medicine and consciousness based methods. This is the type of discussion I have with parents in my own practice, and I want to share some of this perspective with you.

Click below to listen to audio only:

If you’d like to watch more videos on similar topics, go to the video library page on the Principles for Parents website.

If you’d like to find a BodyTalk practitioner in your local area, you can search for one on the International Bodytalk Association’s website at www.bodytalksystem.com

As always, please leave your feedback and comments below.

Spleen Energy and Your Child

Here is an introduction to the concept of spleen energy and your child which comes from the Chinese medicine system. I want to give you some background information as well as some examples in this video that I think all parents need to know.

My goal in making this video is to describe how the evaluation and treatment of your child can be enhanced by using this concept of the spleen energy subcircuit to describe what’s going on with your child and some of the nuances of the particular influence the spleen energy has in young children from birth to around 5 years old. This is the type of discussion I have with parents in my own practice, and I want to share some of this perspective with you.

Click below to listen to audio only:

If you’d like to watch more videos on similar topics, go to the video library page on the Principles for Parents website.

As always, please leave your feedback and comments below.

Three Keys for Parents

The three keys I think all parents should know and use in their daily routines are awareness, context and education in that order. These three topics outline three skills that you can practice in order to benefit your child. They spell out the acronym ‘ACE’, making it easy to remember.

Awareness Context Education

Let’s look at the first one called awareness. There are so many things that remain hidden or below our level of awareness. While it is true we live in a time of hustle and bustle, stress is perceived as par for the course, and kids have daily routines that bounce from here to there, I believe it all comes down to an awareness of what the reality is from your child’s point of view. If we can be aware of the actual perceived feelings, thoughts, visual and auditory cues your child is receiving in realtime, then we have a chance at understanding and helping them to cope with this world we are living in.

The second key is context. I delve into this topic in much more detail when I am conversing with parents in my office but suffice it to say the contextual framework has so much importance I cannot emphasize it enough. In medicine, we have a tendency to zero in on lab values, physical symptoms, and visible parameters. What I want to focus on is the context of your child’s situation. We have to take into account the surrounding environment, family dynamics, school situation, peer group interactions, and a whole host of other categories that make up the context of what your child is experiencing every day. Once we open up this framework and explore these topics, any condition or situation becomes much more understandable to all concerned.

Finally, I want to touch on education. We all know how important education is to kids for their overall growth and development. What I want to remind parents about is the importance of education beyond the classroom. What I mean is, your child has life lessons to learn at various stages and ages during their lives. Since many of these are long term and ongoing topics like developing individuality, self reliance, self confidence and self esteem, and personal interactivity and rapport with others, they tend to get the short end of the stick when it comes to our focus and attention. But by educating ourselves (you and me included) we can be in the best position possible to help your child through their formative and very important growing years. I guess what I’m trying to say is keep learning, exploring, contrasting and comparing what you know to what you don’t know yet. I believe this is the best stance to model for your kids and the nice side effect is it will keep you young at heart and constantly engaged in your child’s daily life, even after they are all grown up and on their own.

So remember these three keys with the acronym ACE: Awareness, Context and Education. I know it will help you as it has helped me to learn new things every day as a holistic physician and pediatrician.

Energy Medicine Book for Parents Published

After the release of my ebook called Energy Medicine Principles for Parents, several people asked if I was considering publishing it as a softcover book. I looked into it and I’m happy to say it is now available in my office, on my website’s online bookstore, and even at New Renaissance Bookstore in Portland, Oregon!

I’d like to say a special thanks to those of you who encouraged me to undertake this project and to those of you who have given me feedback.

I also took the step to make an audio version of the book which is available on 2 CD’s, as some people prefer to listen rather than read. I have some copies of the audio CD’s in my office as well as available to order through my online store here.

I also want to let you know that I recently teamed up with the International BodyTalk Association (IBA) to raise awareness of this energy medicine/consciousness based modality. I have a special page where visitors can buy my ebook and contribute 50% of the proceeds to the IBA to help with the funding for the many projects and good works they are doing throughout the world. Here’s the link to this special page here:
http://www.principlesforparents.com/pfp-and-iba.html

As always, please feel free to give me feedback and comments on my blog or through the contact form on the website.

Thanks,
Peter Hanfileti, MD

Stomachaches in Children

Stomachaches occur in children quite commonly and over the years I have seen many kids with this condition. I have a different perspective on the causative factors that need to be taken into account and I feel this is an important topic to discuss with parents.

In my practice I like to use the saying, “The more information, the better”. What I mean is that we can gain a lot more ground by being open to different systems, interpretations, and models of explanation, rather than just relying on one single description.

If we are evaluating a child with stomachaches, we must address the symptom and condition and try to elucidate the likely causes. However, often there is no discernible cause from a physiologic or anatomic standpoint. Then what do we do? I have stated in other places how I am in agreement with doing testing to make sure there are no obvious or hidden physical problems, like blockages, ulcers, growths, appendicitis, inflammatory bowel disease, etc. In the vast majority of cases, however, none of these are identified as the cause and we are left with no answers.

This is the situation where I believe a broader more holistic and energy derived description and evaluation comes in very handy. On my website I have given more information about the Chinese medicine system and how it addresses conditions found commonly in kids. There are specific groupings which bring together body organs and energy pathways in a coherent and clinically significant way, which I find extremely useful as a physician and I think can be very insightful information for parents to know.

In the Chinese medicine system, the stomach organ and channel are grouped with the large intestine, the lungs and the spleen. These four organs and channels essentially work together on the same circuit, and your child’s energy system must distribute or parcel out its energy in the most efficient and beneficial manner that it can in the context of your child’s daily life and experience.

I have found that when we open up the breadth and scope of our questioning and increase the potential topics of inquiry, our chances of finding the right causative explanation for something like stomachaches goes up dramatically.

So, the bottom line is this: Get an evaluation done to look for treatable and serious problems that could be going on with your child. But don’t stop there if those lab tests and procedures don’t reveal anything. It is important to keep looking for the causes, even if it takes you beyond the physical realm and into the arena where energy becomes the more useful explanation.

In my practice, I use a consciousness based system called BodyTalk which allows us to have access to those things which are only accessible through the energy medicine or consciousness based paradigm. I discuss these concepts in more detail in my ebook called Energy Medicine Principles for Parents and you can read more about the Chinese medicine system and your child on my website called Principles for Parents.

Parenting Tips: Emphasizing Contrast

Another tip I often discuss with parents is the concept of “contrast”. This really refers to the idea that by contrasting what has happened in the past with what is happening now, you are making it easier for your child’s nervous system settings to stay up to date. The main points I like to make with parents regarding this particular tip include the following:

Emphasizing Contrast:

1. This is an important way of demonstrating to your child
the remarkable progress they have already made.

2. It also reinforces the stage of development they are in
which “contrasts” with what came before.

3. Ideally, this leads to the “letting go” of old, outdated, or
no longer relevant settings.

4. Broadcast the right messages to be helpful, knowing
your child is receiving them all the time.

What I mean by this is, you can make statements about what your child used to do in the past, and how now they are able to do something different and probably better and more in keeping with their current age.

For example, as a parent you might say “I remember when you used to have trouble sleeping by yourself, but now that you’re older you can sleep by yourself every night!” Another example might be to say, “I remember when you had to use training wheels on your bike, but now you can ride so well without them because your balance is so good!”

Arc of Change for Your Child

By making these statements, you are describing the arc of change your child has gone through. It is truly remarkable to see the gains your child has made over a short period of time. Why not acknowledge and emphasize this for them? Ideally, this leads to the “letting go” of old, outdated, or no longer relevant settings.

I have had the experience of seeing some kids who have trouble moving forward in their development, not because they or their body and underlying system doesn’t know what to do, but because they feel an inhibition or a reluctance to adapt to the changes required of them based on the feeling of not being able to let go of their more familiar, previously appropriate settings. The shorter way to say this is: some kids don’t deal with changes very well, and it is up to us and especially you to help them move through their period of adjustment.

Parental Broadcasting

Another aspect of this idea of “contrast” I want to mention is the fact that in the energy medicine way of thinking, this information can arrive in your child’s consciousness in more ways than one. Not only can you present this by making statements, but you can also do the same thing by projecting your thoughts and feelings.

This broadcasting of your energy in the form of thoughts, feelings, emotions, and your attitude is happening all the time anyway. Most people are just not aware of this fact. I want to bring this to your attention so that you can make use of it. This is particularly important for the non-verbal or preverbal child, and for those kids that have a heightened level of intuition or energy sensitivity.

Have Confidence Using This New Perspective

As an aside, this understanding comes from an energy medicine perspective, something I did not learn about or have the awareness to see in my practice back when I was a primary care pediatrician. This is one of the reasons why I have such an interest in getting this information out to parents right now.

So have confidence that your child is actively receiving information from you all the time. Now you can make sure they are “receiving” the messages and inputs that you want for them, using techniques like emphasizing contrast for your child as part of your ongoing role as a parent giving them reinforcement and encouragement.

For more tips on other topics and techniques, find out more about my 8 Tips for Parents.

Use Awareness to Help Your Child

I’d like to expand upon this theme of awareness taken from my free ebook called Paradigm Shifting Principles for Parents, which is available as a download on my website called PrinciplesForParents.com.

Awareness is key

I spend a lot of time in my practice emphasizing the importance of awareness. I believe this is the starting point for you, your child, and for me when it comes to beginning the process of helping your child to truly reach their potential.

Going back to the idea that energy has to become our common currency or common denominator, it is true that awareness itself has its own energetic signature or feeling associated with it. This in turn is detectable by your child, no matter what age they are. I find this is detectable by those outside of your family, including me, when interaction is taking place in my practice environment.

This is not surprising when you think about it. We are taught and learn early on, how to key into this awareness state and use it to our advantage and to help us navigate through the world and over the course of our lifetimes.

As the parent in your household, your own awareness of your child’s situation is the predominant factor that your child will key into. This is why it is important to have things squared away in your own mind so that you are not transmitting a sense of insecurity, doubt, despair and the like, to your child if at all possible. Once again, the energy explanation makes this clearer and readily understandable so that we can move forward to solutions for your child.

Age Reciprocal Resonance

Another concept I have written about previously which relates to this topic is something called age reciprocal resonance. This describes the relationship between parents and their children from an energy perspective and brings to our awareness the overlap between the child’s experience and their parent’s experience when they were that age.

This is a wide open, two way street so to speak, and it deserves our undivided attention in real time. The influence of this energetic process can be large or small, depending on the child, the parent, and the family history. I get into more details in my book called “Energy Medicine Principles for Parents”. You may want to read more about what is in the book, or download an excerpt of it that I have made available on my website.

Awareness is the Starting Point

One final thought on awareness I want to impart to you is this: Becoming aware is the starting point in the healing process for you, your child, and your family. When subjects remain in the unconscious or hidden realm, they are very difficult to change or to get a handle on them. By bringing things into your awareness and your child’s awareness, the recognition by itself will jump start and accelerate the process of balancing your child’s situation no matter what it may be.

I have seen this play out many times in my practice, and I have been fortunate to get feedback from parents, in some cases many years later, and their comments have been that a small change in awareness perhaps many years ago resulted in the start of a process which eventually led to understanding and resolution for their child.

I am very grateful for the opportunity I have been given to participate in this process with many parents, kids, and their families. So, work on your own awareness in order to help your child. It just may be the starting point toward helping your child move toward a more balanced state of being, and helping them to get in synch with their own underlying blueprint.

Next Page »